A bittersweet friendship
by jwg676
Summary: Kyouraku and Ukitake know exactly why they're friends


A bittersweet friendship 

Neither of them had ever mentioned how much they meant to each other.

Kyouraku Shunsui could still remember the first time that he and Ukitake Jyuushirou had become friends. He had pulled a simple prank (with consequences of near catastrophic proportions) on Genryuusai-dono, and, in the process of trying to escape the old man's wrath, had found himself pulled into a tree. The white haired Ukitake had sighed, and told him firmly that if he was going to pull stupid stunts on the general then the least he could do was to take him along as well, to "keep him out of trouble". The two of them had been in that tree for about three hours, laughing helplessly as the general had stomped up and down, cursing under his breath.

Somewhere in that time, they had become friends.

Shunsui drank for pleasure.

Sometimes, he overdid it and had to be forcibly dragged to class by an exasperated Jyuushirou, but mostly, he drank for pleasure.

The first time he had found out about Jyuushirou's illness, he had gone out and gotten himself drunk. Very drunk.

They had been out walking by the river when Jyuushirou had suddenly clutched at his chest and collapsed, coughing up thick, dark blood over an alarmed Shunsui. For ten days, Shunsui had nursed him, watching anxiously over his too still form as he lay sleeping. Every breeze had seemed to make his cold skin colder still despite the blankets Shunsui had heaped on him, and at last in desperation, he had simply climbed into bed with him, holding Jyuushirou in his arms as he tried to keep him warm. Shunsui had never forgotten how Jyuushirou had turned into the warmth of his arms like a child.

On the sunrise of the eleventh day, Jyuushirou had finally been well enough to tell him of the devastating illness that had surfaced when he was a child. An illness that was, as far as anyone could tell, incurable.

There was only one thing that Shunsui could do. Oblivious to Jyuushirou's vehement protests that he could look after himself, Shunsui had simply moved into his dorm- "in order to keep an eye on him because someone had to."

Over the years, Shunsui had lost count of the number of times that he had nursed Jyuushirou back to health, each time fearing that it would be the last. He had lost count too, of the number of times he had carried Shirou- as he had taken to calling him- to the academy and back on the days when the illness was stronger than he was.

Despite Shirou's illness, it never failed to startle Shunsui at the sheer amount food that he was able to consume.

It had become something of a joke between them, but Shunsui still feared that the day would come when Jyuushirou would be too sick to eat.

That would mean that the illness had become stronger than Shirou's will to live.

Jyuushirou was well aware of Shunsui's weakness for women.

Seldom had a day passed without Shunsui chasing his fellow (female) students through the halls. He couldn't help it, Jyuushirou knew, it was just that Shunsui fell in love with a different woman at least three times a day.

(Sometimes it was the same woman over and over but Jyuushirou wasn't about to tell him that)

It had also come to Jyuushirou's attention that most of the times Shunsui "fell in love" was after he had been at the sake bottle. At least half of those moments had occurred when Shunsui was too hung over to know what he was doing.

There had been a memorable occasion when Shunsui had actually professed undying love to a vice captain (who had then proceeded to run screaming into the distance and as far as anyone knew, had not been seen again).

Jyuushirou still enjoyed reminding Shunsui of it.

Sometimes, when he was in better health, Jyuushirou would challenge Shunsui to a drinking competition. Over the years, Shunsui had learned not to be so surprised when Shirou drank him under the table. For some reason, Jyuushirou had always been better at holding his alcohol, although Shunsui still suspected him of pouring sake into the plants. He had never confronted him, but there were moments when Jyuushirou heard him muttering pithily of a "waste of good sake."

To this day, Jyuushirou still doesn't know what he was on about.

Shunsui and Jyuushirou could both remember the day that they managed to simultaneously achieve shikai.

Assigned to spar with each other, there had been a moment in the middle of the match when time had simply… stood still. It had never been clear how it had happened, but for Shunsui, two things stood out most in his mind- his bewilderment at somehow ending up with two zanpakutou's instead of one, and the look on Shirou's face as he had held his own double soul slayer.

Of course, there were rumours as to how both of them had managed to wield dual soul slayers, but Jyuushirou had never paid much attention to them.

Within a decade, both of them had graduated from the academy as captains.

Over the course of a friendship that spanned more than twenty centuries, Shunsui and Jyuushirou had become accustomed to each other's unique needs and odd habits, and were both able to meet those needs as they arose. Shunsui had long held that they were the best and worst of each other, two halves of a whole, and Jyuushirou was inclined to believe him.

After all, it was Shunsui who had nursed him through attack after attack, Shunsui who had tried to console him when he had confessed of his grief at being unable to have children, Shunsui who had held him as he cried the night Kaien died (and who had cried with him two days later at the funeral), Shunsui who had deliberately gotten himself into trouble with Yamamoto in order to rescue Kuchiki Rukia and prevent what was clearly an unfair execution, Shunsui who had fought for him and accepted him as he was.

It was Jyuushirou who had dragged him out of more scrapes than he cared to remember, Jyuushirou who had nursed him through terrible hangovers- and still dragged him to the academy- Shirou who had patiently sat for hour after hour listening to him extolling the virtues of every female student at the academy, Shirou who had been one of the few people who hadn't taken him at face value, Shirou who had just… been.

Neither of them had ever acknowledged the bond they shared.

Then again, neither of them had needed to.


End file.
